Jail And The Mentally Ill
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:01 am
Jamie Fellner, Director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch, says that “Prisons have become the nation’s primary mental health facilities,†and that “... for those with serious illnesses, prison can be the worst place to be.†http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/10/22/usdom6472.htm
In a report called Ill-Equipped:U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness, the statistics are given that “Persons with mental illness are disproportionately represented in correctional institutions. While about 5 percent of the U.S. population suffers from mental illness, a 1998 report noted that 'studies and clinical experience indicate that somewhere between 8 and 19 percent of prisoners have significant psychiatric or functional disabilities and another 15 to 20 percent will require some form of psychiatric intervention during their incarceration.'†At the time of the report, this represents approximately 300,000 men and women in U.S. prisons today who are seriously mentally ill, and 70,000 who are psychotic. Additionally, the report goes on to state that “[a]s these numbers suggest, prisons have become warehouses for a large proportion of the country’s men and women with mental illness. In September 2000, Congressman Ted Strickland informed his colleagues on the House Subcommittee on Crime that between 25 and 40 percent of all mentally ill Americans would, at some point in their lives, become entangled in the criminal justice system.â€
This percentage compares to only a 5.1% chance of incarceration for an American in general versus the up to 40% chance for mentally ill. (Racially, an African American faces a 16.2% chance, Hispanic 9.4%, and White 2.5%.)
The behaviour of mentally ill prisoners is often used to create a negative image of prisoners in general and to influence the public opinion on how prisoners should be treated. In a time when the number of incarcerated criminals and the expense of the prison system is of great public concern, separating the criminals from the insane is an important issue. Not only are the mentally ill being made worse by their incarceration, ideas on the treatment of prisoners is being affected by reflecting their behaviour as “normalâ€.
In a report called Ill-Equipped:U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness, the statistics are given that “Persons with mental illness are disproportionately represented in correctional institutions. While about 5 percent of the U.S. population suffers from mental illness, a 1998 report noted that 'studies and clinical experience indicate that somewhere between 8 and 19 percent of prisoners have significant psychiatric or functional disabilities and another 15 to 20 percent will require some form of psychiatric intervention during their incarceration.'†At the time of the report, this represents approximately 300,000 men and women in U.S. prisons today who are seriously mentally ill, and 70,000 who are psychotic. Additionally, the report goes on to state that “[a]s these numbers suggest, prisons have become warehouses for a large proportion of the country’s men and women with mental illness. In September 2000, Congressman Ted Strickland informed his colleagues on the House Subcommittee on Crime that between 25 and 40 percent of all mentally ill Americans would, at some point in their lives, become entangled in the criminal justice system.â€
This percentage compares to only a 5.1% chance of incarceration for an American in general versus the up to 40% chance for mentally ill. (Racially, an African American faces a 16.2% chance, Hispanic 9.4%, and White 2.5%.)
The behaviour of mentally ill prisoners is often used to create a negative image of prisoners in general and to influence the public opinion on how prisoners should be treated. In a time when the number of incarcerated criminals and the expense of the prison system is of great public concern, separating the criminals from the insane is an important issue. Not only are the mentally ill being made worse by their incarceration, ideas on the treatment of prisoners is being affected by reflecting their behaviour as “normalâ€.